Cheating Death
by KaibaGirl007
Summary: Short story about Gozaburo, Noah and Death.


**Disclaimer**

**I own no rights to Yugioh! or The Sandman.**

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It was a bright and beautiful day as Death turned up outside a huge mansion. She was all dressed in black like always, wore her silver ankh around her neck and was running late behind schedule thanks to an unexpected war outbreak fuelled by Kaiba Corp's weaponry. Maybe Gozaburo Kaiba would have thought twice about his destruction causing machines if he knew that she had come for his son.

Or maybe the whole thing wouldn't have happened if her brother hadn't abandoned his realm. She sighed as she was disappointed with Destruction, but couldn't really blame him for not wanting to take responsibility over such carnage that the humans had caused during the time that they had existed. Sometimes she was even unsure of her own job, but what needed to be done, had to be done.

Searching around for the boy she had come for, Death noticed that remains of broken headlights and blood scattered across the road. She had been too late and missed the boy's accident, causing him to remain in his body for a little bit longer than usual, which meant that she would have to travel to the hospital that he was most likely to have been rushed to. She cursed herself for her lateness and the extra trauma that was likely to be caused to the boy's soul who she would be collecting, before she disappeared in to thin air.

Death reappeared inside the hospital where at last she would be able to collect the boy. It took her no longer than a couple of seconds to get there from the mansion, and if she wanted too she could have taken all day. It didn't matter to her as the boy was already dead and only needed her to guide him in to the afterlife.

Outside an empty recovery room two doctors stood complaining to each other.

"I can believe that he fired me!" exclaimed the first.

"There's no way that he'll be able to save his son without our help." stated the second.

"His machines can't do anything that can't already be done here." said the first, as they both walked by Death who was invisible to them both.

Death sighed at the thought of just how much a parent would try to do in order to save their own child. It was very touching and showed that even the CEO of a ruthless weapons company that destroyed the lives of many still had a heart. She disappeared once again as she set off to find the father and his boy.

Gozaburo stood in front of a large tank that contained the body of his dead son, Noah. Floating peacefully inside the capsule full of fluid Noah was all wired up to the computer mainframe of the system that was built to the side of the tank.

"I'm sorry but he's already dead." came a gentle, sympathetic female voice from behind the man.

Gozaburo turned to see Death as she slowly approached him. "Who are you?" he asked angrily as he was being delayed from saving his son's life.

"I am Death." she told him. Very rarely did she ever make herself visible to the living but felt that she needed to be in this circumstance. It was clear that this man was in denial and needed to have the situation explained better to him. And maybe, just maybe, the encounter would change his mind about what his company was achieving. "I am the one who guides the dead in to the afterlife, and have come to collect your son."

"Noah's not dead!" Gozaburo shouted. "He's just temporarily out of order."

"You're weapons and machines are the ones that can become _out of order, _but Noah's death has been destined from the moment that the car hit him." Death watched as the man approached the computer control panels and even felt sorry for him. "There is nothing that you can do to keep him here, but I will allow you to say goodbye before I lead him away."

"That's where you're wrong, Missy!" Gozaburo pulled down on a lever and electricity surged through the water and around Noah's body. "Once I transfer his soul to inside my computer he will remain here with me forever."

Death stared from the crazed man to the boy in the tank, and sensed that what she had been told was true. Quickly she entered in to the capsule to retrieve Noah's soul but was too late as he had already disappeared to inside the computer. She retreated, empty handed, before she herself was sucked in as she didn't fancy being imprisoned like her brother, Dream, had once been.

"I've just cheated death by digitalizing my own son." Gozaburo laughed. "And when I have the means to do so, _I _will restore him, and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

Any feelings of sympathy that Death had for the deranged man disappeared. "You can not take control of matters like this in to your own hands." she told him with anger in her voice.

"I just did." Gozaburo lit up a cigar and blow the smoke in to the Goth girl's face which passed straight through her.

A beeping noise came from the belt that Death wore. She looked at it and frowned. "I'm needed elsewhere, but I will return for you when you least expect it." She looked hard at the smug man. "This is only the beginning of your downfall."

There wasn't even a puff of smoke as she disappeared, leaving Gozaburo alone in the room with his technical machines. He stared at Noah's body as it floated inside the tank. Nobody was ever going to take away what was rightfully his.

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Death walked down the sidewalk of a busy street without being seen by any of the passers by. She stopped outside the front of a tall building which bore the Kaiba Corp logo and checked her watch. She had made sure that she was early for her pick-up and counted down the remaining seconds. "Five. Four. Three. Two. One."

There was the sound of glass breaking and Death took one step backwards closer towards the building just before the body of Gozaburo Kaiba hit the sidewalk. The fragments of glass from the window that he had just fallen through shattered as they hit the ground. Passers by screamed at the sight that they had just witnessed and a couple of them rushed to help the lifeless man.

Slowly Gozaburo pushed himself up from where he lay on the ground. "Damn you Seto, I will have my revenge for this ordeal." he muttered as he rubbed his aching head. He looked down and saw that he was still laying on the ground and now surrounded by people. "Impossible!" he cried. "I can't be dead!"

"You just fell from the top floor of your company's building, so I can assure you that you are indeed _dead_." a familiar female voice told Gozaburo as he turned to face Death. "I told you that I would return for you when you least expected it."

"You won't take me." Gozaburo told the girl as she reached out for him and gripped hold of his arm tightly.

"It's over, so prepare to move on." Death pulled him along beside her as they entered the light to pass through to Gozaburo's final resting place.

"What next?" Gozaburo asked as the two of them stood waiting in the bright light. He didn't seem to show any fear about what was to happen next.

"Next you go to the place that your heart has allowed you to gain access to." Death told the man as they were approached by an angel.

"Oh well." Gozaburo smirked as the angel took hold of him, convinced that he wasn't being sent to Hell like he had thought. "Looks like I won't be meeting old Lucifer himself after all."

"For your information, Lucifer no longer resides Hell." Death explained. "He now runs a nightclub in LA, and Duma here is one of the two new rulers for that place still known as Hell, which is exactly where you're heading for."

Surprisingly Gozaburo showed no fear as he was lead away by the mute angel, Duma. "I cheated you once again as part of me still remains it that world, along side by son." he shouted as he was taken out of Death's sight.

Death thought about his words for a moment before she pulled at her ankh and held it tightly. "My brother, I do not stand in my gallery, neither do I hold your sigil in my hand, but I call on you. Destiny; please let me enter your realm."

Almost instantly Death found her self transported to her brother's realm. She stood on a path in the middle of a huge garden in front of seven larges stone statues of herself and her siblings. Looking around she spotted her one and only elder sibling standing on a small stone bridge and made her way over to him.

Destiny wore a long brown robe that draped all the way down to the ground and his hood up so that his face was almost hidden from view completely. In his hands he held open a huge book were every single detail, of every single being's life was contained. He did not hide the book's pages from his sister as he did with the other siblings on the rare occasions that they visited him, as she was also made aware of some of the books secrets shortly before she collected those spirits who had to travel to their final resting places.

"Is it true what he said brother?" Death asked as she reached the bridge and stood by her brother's side glancing down at the water below.

Destiny remained calm as he told her; "You know that I am unable to discuss issues like this with you my sister."

Death clenched her fists in frustration from her brother's reply. She wasn't even going to bother to argue with him for not warning her about Gozaburo cheating fate twice, as she was sure that it was written on the previous pages that Destiny had read. She continued to stare down towards the water as it flowed by, and wondered just what Gozaburo had planned to keep himself held back in the living world, and what would become of him and his son.

"Do not worry." Death was surprised to hear her brother speak, as she often never heard him say anything to comfort her in times of doubt. "They will both get what they deserve."

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Gozaburo and Noah both appeared in one of the corridors that connect the many different worlds together. Just a few moments earlier they had been in the virtual world that they had created together in order to trap Seto Kaiba and his friends so that they could take control of their bodies, and claim back the company which had been taken from them.

But after all what Noah had done to help his father he was only cast aside to learn that Gozaburo had come to hate him for the failure that he had been convinced that he had become. Noah then tried to escape to live his own life by seizing the body of the younger of his two step-brothers, and learnt that even though he had done bad things there were still people willing to forgive him. And so he tried to stop his father, who he still loved dearly, from harming the two Kaiba brothers and their friends as he held him trapped within the virtual world as it was destroyed once its captives had fled.

Now here in the nothingness, Noah still clung tightly to the arm of his father as they fell to the ground together. He refused to let go even when Gozaburo hit him. "How dare you betray me after everything I've done for you! My own flesh and blood, who I gave all of my love to give you everything that you ever had!"

As Gozaburo struck out again, Noah released his grip and landed with a thud. "You've caused me nothing but misery from the day that you trapped me in that place!" Noah yelled with tears flowing from his closed eyes. "If you had really loved me then you would have let me go!" Noah sobbed and opened his eyes as he looked at his father. "And I'm not the one who betrayed you; you did that to yourself in your quest for power."

Gozaburo stopped as he was about to hit his son once more. What Noah was saying was true. He finally realised what a monster he had become and just how much he had spiralled out of control since Noah's accident all those years ago. He knew that he wasn't really a bad man, just an overprotective father who had wanted only the best possible life for his child. He lowered his hand as the guilt of all the bad things that he had ever done slowly entered his heart.

Not only had he hurt Noah with his own greed but also the rest of his family. His ex-wife who he had once vowed to love and honour but instead drove her away, and both of his step-sons whose lives he was sure he had ruined from the cruel upbringing he had forced upon them. Then the realisation of all the pain, suffering and destruction that his company's weapons had caused made him drop to his knees in remorse. "What have I done?" he said quietly to himself.

"I'm glad that you've finally managed to learn to feel emotional pain." came an angelic voice and two silhouettes appeared and began to materialize to form two angels. It was the angel Remiel who had spoken whilst Duma remained mute as always.

Duma reached down took hold of Gozaburo and pulled the man back on to his feet, whilst Remiel told him; "It's time for you to join your other half of your soul."

"You can't do this." Gozaburo said with fear in his voice. "Only _she _can lead me to you before you can take me away from my son." the thought of spending the rest of eternity in Hell now scared him.

"Usually that would be so, but since half of your soul resides with us we are allowed to take the rest of you without her presence." Remiel explained as Duma dragged the rest of the fearful soul away to their realm, as he cried for forgiveness as the two of them disappeared in to the darkness.

"Where have you taken him?" Noah asked the remaining angel.

"To the place that he imprisoned himself long ago." Remiel replied as he looked at the saddened boy would never again see the father that he still loved above his hatred for him.

"There you are!" Death exclaimed as she appeared before them. "I've been wandering these corridors for ages trying to find you." she told Noah before she thanked the angel. "Thank you for not leaving him on his own, Remiel." After nodding in reply to her thanks, Remiel disappeared as gracefully as he had first appeared with Duma.

Noah still remained were he sat down on the ground and stared up at the Goth girl who towered over him. He couldn't explain to himself how he knew that she was the one who came to lead the spirits in to the afterlife, he just knew. Maybe it was from what he had heard his father say a moment ago, but he could've sworn that he'd seen her somewhere before.

Death lowered her hand down to the boy and waited for him to take hold. "Are you ready for the next step?" she asked as she helped him stand up on to his feet.

"The next step?" Noah asked confused. He knew that he was dead but what else could there possibly be to do next? "Aren't I already dead?"

"You are indeed." Death smiled. "Now I have to take you to your final resting place."

"I'm going to Hell aren't I!" Noah blurted out. He had been so mean to all those would had been trapped inside the virtual world that he knew it would certain himself a place there, and even though he didn't want to go he knew that it was only fair. He looked away from Death's view and whispered; "I've been a very bad boy."

"I'm not the one who can decide on where you go." Death bent down so that she was level with Noah's face. "That relies on your heart and a power far greater than I could ever possess." she saw Noah try to weakly smile but he failed.

Standing upright again Death lead Noah by the hand for only a few paces before a door appeared. "This is where I have to say goodbye to you." she told him.

"I'm scared." he confessed as he still held tightly to her hand.

"There's nothing to be scared of." Death tried to assure the boy who didn't seem to be convinced. "Just think of the happiest thought that you have as you enter through the doors and everything will be okay."

Noah let go of Death's hand and approached the door. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he searched for the happiest moment from his life. Many times from when he was very small entered his mind and he saw himself playing happily with his parents, but all of them thoughts faded and he was left with a more recent memory.

A smile appeared on his face as he remembered the moment that Mokuba had told him that he and Seto would attempt to build him a body so that the three of them could be together and had called him brother. Despite what he had done, Mokuba still believed that there was good inside him and had helped him to realise that what he had been doing was wrong and so had saved him.

Still with his eyes closed Noah pushed open the door and entered, leaving Death behind him. With a smile on her face Death watched as the boy entered his heavenly resting ground, and felt proud that he had been able to resist and defeat the darkness that had consumed his father.

**THE END**


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